24-the to do list condundrum

You know when you are making a to do list and sometimes you get excited and forget that things such as time and energy and concentration and so you overload the to do list? And the next thing you know there are 16 items on your to do list that take at least an hour each.

I know I am not the only one this happens to.

I know I am not the only student this happens to.

The ultimate key to being a student is to be aware of this tendency and not overload your to do list. This leads to decision paralysis and you putting off items from the to do list until tomorrow.

Or never.

The take away of today is to be careful of the to do list. They are useful to utilize for the future. Just be careful of how excited you are to do the things on the list. Because future you may not be as excited for the to do list.

On my current to do list until Tuesday is

hang up the poster I am presenting
go to as many sessions at AORN that I want (I currently have 15 on the list)
give the presentation about the poster on Monday morning
Peer review session on Monday afternoon
delegate responsibilities of first forum
delegate sessions
closing sessions.
Drive home
Reading and notes for Friday’s classes

After Tuesday

RA make up day on Wednesday
3 hour class on Thursday for work
Cookie Thursday is a Thing make for Thursday
Work on Homework #3 (due 3/17)

But this is a conference week. Of course I have lots to do for that. I kept the list short for the rest of the list. Because conferences are exhausting.

Monitor yourself when making a to do list. Ask yourself if this is something you want to do, have time to do, have the energy to do. But be careful of the very human tendency to max out your to do list and be exhausted about it and nothing gets done.

Strategies can include writing a a ranked to do list where the important things to the top of the list. Or gamifying it by assigning colors like the traffic light to the importance of the item on the list. Red means caution, be careful of your energy levels and your attention, yellow indicates lesser importance, and green indicates must work on. Or star the items on you to do list 1-5, depending on how important they are.

There are many other strategies. Like so many things, you just have to find the one that works for you.

Just be careful of how many items you put on your list.

Tell me when you find your to do list strategy.

School Me Saturday 2/10/23-Fear of failure

The fear of failure is very real for students.

What if I fail a test? Does mean I fail the class? What if I get an F on a paper? Does this mean I fail the class?

What if my alarm(s) fails to go off?

What if I fail to get into the homework study group that I really want into? What if I fail my parents, my significant other, myself?

What if I fail the class? What if I fail myself? What if I fail the class? What if I fail the test? What happens if I fail? Will I have to leave the program?

Calm down. Take a deep breath. Breathe in, breathe out.

Calm.

You can work yourself into a big tizzy thinking about all the things that could happen if you fail. Your mind can go faster, faster in circles. Like a dog chasing its tail.

Failure happens. I am quite certain that all of academia has seen every iteration of failure. All the ways that people fail.

Some people will tell you that failure is not an option. Obviously, it is or we would not be so scared of it. But what to do about it?

Reams and reams of articles have been written on the subject. All I can tell you, with any certainty, is how I deal with academic fear. Because I’ve been afraid as a student. Many times. it is how to meet the fear head-on that allows you to gain the courage to go on. And go to the next class.

I sit with the fear and play the what-if game. What if I fail this class? What if I fail this paper? There are conversations you can have with your instructors about make-ups, or extra credits, or even if the grades will be on the bell curve.

The movie Dune tells us, through Paul Atreides (the main character, AKA Paul Muad’Dib) that fear is the mind killer. This is very true. Fear can be a paralytic.

My very first ACLS (advanced cardiac life support) told us on the very first class, on the very first day that the first thing you do in a code is take your own pulse. This shocked many of us into laughter because my pulse in a code is the least of my concerns. It is the patient who is dead. What she meant is that you have to check in with yourself, and take a split second to calm yourself. This is taking your own pulse.

When you get the test booklet, the first thing to do is to answer the very first question. It will be your name. And you certainly know your name. First question down. On to the next.

When you get your first F, the first thing to do is take a deep breath and calm down. After your panic has subsided, look at the answers that were missed and read the questions. Square in your head why the question was missed. In the days of the scantron answer sheets, I accidentally skipped a page, which made all the questions after that wrong. Plead your case.

Find your study group, talk to your instructor, talk to your classmates.

Take your own pulse. And breathe.

School Me Saturday 1/27/24-Procrastination, part 1 the mental load

According to the Oxford English dictionary, procrastination is the action of delaying or postponing something.

It will surprise no one that I have often been accused of procrastinatory tendencies. I freely admit it. What some people see as me just putting something off is the action of me in my creative process. While I am not doing the assignment/cleaning/item on the to-do list, my brain is thinking about the assignment.

I would caution against this. It can cause a lot of anxiety.

And students don’t need to be adding to their anxiety about school.

I have had many thoughts and plans and “fixes” to being a procrastinator. These have either been given to me, or I was told about them, or I found them on my own.

Because no one likes to be a procrastinator. No one wakes up one day and says to themselves well, that paper/assignment/dissertation isn’t due for 10 days, I’ve got plenty of time. Only to wake up the day before it is due thinking “oh no!” and pulling an all-nighter to get it submitted on time.

For example, I have a 5-page paper due next Friday night. At 2359.

I know what it is to be about. I have been considering it since I learned about the paper. I have started the mental process of thinking about it. Thinking through each of the asks. Thinking how I am going to keep it to ONLY 6 pages.

Yes, I am in a PhD program and still struggling with this. I KNOW I am not alone. I’ve been like this since I first started writing my papers on the family computer and printing them in the late 1980s/early 1990s.

I have 2 things due in the next two weeks. My goal is to finish the paper and submit by Wednesday 1/31. My second goal is to finish and submit the Measurement homework assignment that is due on 2/8 by Tuesday 2/7.

You do what works for your schedule and your brain. My goal for the semester is to submit assignments 2 days before they are due. Wish me luck!

When I do a 2nd procrastination post, I will bring up some of the common fixes.

Let’s work on this together.